HOLLINGER 




No. 158. 

Gov. Andrew's 

Address to the 

Massachusetts 

Legislature. 

May 14, I 86 1. 



Gentlemen oj the Senate and the House oj Representatives: 

The occasion demands action, and it shall not be delaved bv 
speech. Nor do either the people or their representatives need 
or require to be stimulated by appeals or convinced by arguments. 
A grand era has dawned, inaugurated by the present great and 
critical exigency of the nation, through vi'hich it will providen- 
tially and triumphantly pass, and, soon emerging from apparent 
gloom, will breathe a freer inspiration in the assured conscious- 
ness of vitahty and power. Confident of our ultimate future, 
confident in the principles and ideas of democratic republicari 
government, in the capacity, conviction, and manly purpose of 
the American people, wherever liberty exists and repubHcan 
government is administered under the purifying and instruct- 
ing power of free opinion and free debate, I perceive nothing now 
about us which ought to discourage the good or to alarm the 
brave. 

But the occurrence of public events universally known and 
needing no repetition here has compelled the constitutional 
government of our Federal Union to assert its rightful powers 
for the protection of its own integrity, and the maintenance of 
the honor, rights, and liberties of the whole people, bv an appeal 
to the stout hearts and the strong right arms of all loval States 
and patriotic men. 

Massachusetts, by the unanimous acclaim of her million and 
a quarter of people, has already inspired every department of her 

■53 



own public service with her traditional sentiment of perfect 
devotion to the cause of that common country which her succes- 
sive generations have helped either to create or to support. And 
it is now only with a view to securing the aid and co-operation 
of the legislative branch, and in order to carry out more perfectly 
and more consistently with the system of our constitutional dis- 
tribution of powers the measures requisite to a full performance 
of our duty as a State of the Union, that I have ventured to re- 
call the members of the General Court from their private duties 
so speedily after the close of a laborious session. 

Gentlemen, this is no war of sections, — no war of North on 
South. It is waged to avenge no former wrongs, nor to perpet- 
uate ancient griefs or memories of conflict. It is the struggle 
of the people to vindicate their own rights, to retain and in- 
vigorate the institutions of their fathers, — the majestic efTort 
of a National Government to vindicate its power and execute 
its functions for the welfare and happiness of the whole; and 
therefore, while I do not forget, I will not name to-day that 
'^subtle poison"' which has lurked always in our national system. 
And I remember, also, at this moment, that, even in the midst 
of rank and towering rebellion, under the very shadow of its 
torch and axe, there are silent but loyal multitudes of citizens of the 
South who wait for the national power to be revealed and its 
protecting flag unfurled for their own deliverance. 

The guns pointed at Fort Sumter on the twelfth day of April, 
while they reduced the material edifice and made prisoners of 
its garrison, announced to Anderson and his men their introduc- 
tion into the noble army of heroes of .■\merican history, and 
the cannon of the fort, as they saluted the American flag, when 
the vanquished garrison — unconquerable in heart — retired from 
the scene, saluted the immortal Stripes and Stars, flaming out in 
ten times ten thousand resurrections of the flag of Sumter, on 
hilltop, staff, and .spire, hailed by the shouts and the joyful tears 
of twenty millions of freemen. 

The proclamation of the President, summoning the rebels 
to disperse and the loyal militia to rally to the support of the 
National Capitol, menaced by Secessionists, was immediately 
followed in this State by a movement of four regimental com- 
mands of infantry, a battalion of rifles, and another of li^ht 
artillery (all from the ".Active Volunteer Militia" of Massachu- 
setts), which, under all its circumstances of celerity of motion, 
promptness of obedience, and brilliancy of results, is unexampled 
IS4 



in anything I remember elsewhere of the conduct of citizen sol- 
diery. The telegraphic call from the Department at Washing- 
ton for two regiments reached the Executive of Massachusetts 
on the morning of Monday, the 15th of April, and was soon ex- 
panded into a call for four regiments. Availing ourselves of 
the organization happily existing in this Commonwealth par- 
tially prepared for active duty, and of the fle.xibihty of our mihtia 
system, and with the aid of the legislation of this year permit- 
ting its indefinite numerical enlargement and the expansion of 
its companies to the full army size of sixty-four privates, to- 
gether with the steps already taken to anticipate possible exi- 
gencies of the sort, and with the advantages of previous drill, dis- 
cipKne, and moral preparation induced by means of a General 
Order, promulgated to the mihtia in the month of January, the 
patriotic ardor and generous devotion of the people found means 
of efficient and prompt response. The telegraphic messages from 
Washington convinced me that no small reliance was placed 
on this Commonwealth to be early in the field, and, moreover, 
that no delay whatever would be consistent with the urgent de- 
mands of the public safety. Nor was any delay permitted. 
Every officer, civil and military, according to his position and 
means of usefulness, and many private citizens, with various 
aid, co-operated with the Commander-in-Chief; and by nine 
o'clock, on the Sabbath morning following the Monday on whici,. 
the first telegram was received, the whole number of regiments 
demanded from Massachusetts were already either in Washing- 
ton or in Fortress Monroe, or on their way to the defence of the 
National Capitol. Colonel Jones, at the head of the regimental 
command, of which the Sixth Regiment of the Massachusetts 
line was the nucleus, had already cut his way through a hostile 
and assailing force. His men, shedding their blood in the streets 
of Baltimore, and illustrating the quaUty of our arms by a move- 
ment as skilful as it was brave, had extricated themselves from 
their sudden and strange peril, and were already steadying the 
government, and actuallv garrisoned in the Senate Chamber 
of the Union. General Butler, gallantly following as rapidly 
as possible in company with the regiment under Munroe, to as- 
sume command in his capacity of brigadier over the Massachu- 
setts men, had reached Philadelphia, where he heard of the at- 
tack upon the 6th, while it was yet in progress. Interrupted in 
his march by this new turn of affairs and the breach in the modes 
of travel and communication, it became necessary for the mo- 



ment that our troops should seek another route to Washington, 
and also to endeavor to prevent the important post and position 
of AnnapoHs from seizure and its inhabitants from demoraliza- 
tion. These new necessities created a demand for other arms, 
to accompany the infantry which alone had been ordered from 
Washington; and a battalion of rifles, under the command of 
Major Devens, of Worcester (reinforced by the rifle corps of 
Captain Briggs from Pittsfield), and the Boston battahon of 
Light Artillery under Major Cook, were put into immediate 
requisition, and accompanied the infantry command under 
Colonel LawTence, of which the Fifth Regiment of our line is 
the nucleus. The urgency of the occasion and the telegram of 
General Butler from Philadelphia, requesting artillery, and the 
military reasons palpably establishing the necessity of aiming 
at the substantial right, to the postponement of ceremonies or 
forms, convinced me that I ought to take the responsibiUty of 
putting these additional arms in motion, and of providing the 
requisite means for their equipment and transportation. This 
force arrived at New York on Sunday night, and sailed in two 
steamers on Monday, the 22d, for .\nna]3olis, whither they had 
been preceded by Butler \nth !Munroe's command from Phila- 
delphia. On the preceding Saturday the Old Colony command, 
made up in part of Colonel Packard's and in part of Colonel 
Wardrop's regiments, had arrived at Fortress Monroe, Pack- 
ard in the "State of Maine" steamer, by way of Fall River, and 
Wardrop in the steamer "Spaulding," directly from Boston. 
(Jn the very day of their arrival, Wardrop's command had been 
put on board the United States steamer, the "Pawnee," and had 
left the fortress to assist in a brilliant movement, both of dan- 
ger and success, in the destruction of United States vessels and 
mihtary stores at Gosport Navy Yard, then menaced, and in 
immediate danger of falling into the hands of the pubHc ene- 
mies. The saving of the venerable ship-of-war "Constitution," 
the ''Old Ironsides" of our famihar speech and affectionate 
memories, is one of the happy omens and one of the first illus- 
trations of that series of actions and events which characterized 
the conduct and enterprise of our soldiers after the landing at 
Annapolis, holding the post, saving another ship-of-war endan- 
gered from Baltimore, rebuilding a railroad, reconstructing 
locomotives, opening up the communication between Wa.shing- 
ton and Philadelphia, at the same time that they were enduring 
the hitherto untried deprivations of a camp, and the hardships 
156 



5 

incident to a soldier's career, for which the suddenness of their 
call had permitted no adequate preparation. 

The contracts and expenditures incidental to this movement 
of troops, to obtaining and arranging their final equipment, 
whether of arms or clothing, to their subsistence, and general 
comfort and protection, have been unhesitatingly incurred, in 
firm reliance upon the support and sympathy of the people and 
the approval of the legislature. Nor — in view of the known in- 
adequacy of the national stores — have the Governor and Council 
hesitated to anticipate coming wants and to provide for mili- 
tary stores, clothing, and equipments as rapidly as possible, not 
only to supply current needs and to repair existing deficiencies, 
but to meet the certain demands of the approaching summer. 

I cannot doubt that, to some extent, the suddenness of our 
necessary action, the novelty of our situation, and the fact of 
the inexperience of our whole people in the arts of war and the 
wants of camp life have exposed us all to some mistakes, to some 
loss of material, to some misadaptation of means to ends, and 
some oversight of economies possible to better opportunities or 
to greater experience. But I am confident that the service has 
been conducted by all its agents and departments with zealous 
care and honest effort to command success in the work of econ- 
omy, not less than in the more brilliant and attractive spheres 
of gallant enterprise. The disbursements in the military ser- 
vice, which had been made up to the close of business yesterday, 
were : — 

For subsistence $40,222.34 

Clothing 90,823.92 

Equipments 30,565.78 

Transportation of troops 43,260.38 

One-half of steamer "Cambridge" 45,000.00 

One-half of steamer "Pembroke" 17,500.00 

Telegraphing -7-~(> 

§267,645.18 

To these expenditures may be added (besides the amount of 
the contemplated purchase of arms in Europe) about $100,000 
more, to cover contracts for clothing and equipments now in 
progress, to meet present and future wants. Of all these con- 
tracts and disbursements more detailed statements are ready 
for exhibition. 

157 



Nearly all these expenditures (aside from the purchase of the 
steamers) constitute valid claims upon the Federal government, 
since its lack of such outfits and pro\'isions as are required by 
soldiers on the march and in the camp imposed upon us the neces- 
sity of procuring supplies for immediate use and of preparation 
for future demands. The contracts described as in progress 
are in part for fatigue suits, and also for full uniforms for summer 
campaign service, adequate to the wants of 6,000 men. 

I ought not, in this connection, to omit to allude to the unre- 
mitting care that has been cast upon the whole Executive Council, 
which has held daily sessions during the past month, and whose 
committees on contracts and accounts have been constantly and 
laboriously occupied. 

In truth and courtesy I must add that, whatever success has 
thus far been achieved in our military operations is largely due 
to the incessant exertions and chivalrous devotion of my mili- 
tary aides-de-camp, to whom the Commonwealth is indebted 
for invaluable services far beyond the immediate duties of their 
official stations, and for which I gladly confess my personal 
obligation. I am also under special and peculiar obligation to 
some gentlemen, whose time, withdrawn from the important 
cares of their private business, was generously offered to the Com- 
monwealth and accepted in the same spirit in which it was ten- 
dered, and whom I would gladly designate by name, were I 
permitted to do .so by the proprieties of this occasion. 

Very soon after the commencement of our preparations, the 
increase of business rendered the appointment of a Quarter- 
master-general, in accordance with the provisions of the Con- 
stitution and the General Statutes, an obvious necessity; and 
I nominated to that office a gentleman who has generously and 
faithfully performed its duties, for which no compensation has 
been provided by law. This withdrawal of certain duties, not 
properly pertaining to the office of the .Adjutant-general, has 
enabled the crowded business of his bureau to be conducted with 
an efficiency and despatch otherwise impossible. 

But, even with all this zealous and faithful co-operation, it is 
ob\-ious that a broader and more comprehensive organization 
of the staff of the Commander-in-Chief is required by the condi- 
tion of affairs. It is my opinion that an officer with substantially 
the functions of commissary-general is needed to accompany the 
Massachusetts troops in the field, and that the institution, at 
least temporarilv, of a regular medical bureau is particularlv 
158 



desirable, its duties having thus far been generously performed 
by a commission of medical gentlemen in Boston informally ap- 
pointed. With this view, I suggest that it may be advisable 
to authorize the Governor, with the adv-ice of the Executive 
Council, to institute and commission such additional Staff Officers 
as the public business may, in his judgment, from time to time 
require, and in the same manner to fix their compensation, and 
to remove them, or to discontinue their offices; and, further, 
to define and prescribe the respective duties of the various de- 
partments of the staff". 

I respectfully recommend that an appropriation be made to 
cover these e.xpenses and contracts already incurred, as well as 
such others as may hereafter be indicated, and of such additional 
public service as the legislature may direct. 

In \iew of the great lack of arms existing in this Common- 
v.'calth, certain to become apparent in the event of a continued 
struggle, — a want shared by the States in common with each 
other, — under the advice and consent of the Council, I commis- 
sioned a citizen of Massachusetts on the twenty-seventh day of 
April (who sailed almost immediately in the steamer "Persia") to 
proceed to England, charged with the duty of purchasing Minie 
rifles, or other arms of corresponding efficiency, in England or on 
the Continent, as he might find it needful or desirable. To this 
end he was furnished with a letter of credit to the amount of fifty 
thousand pounds sterling, and he was attended by an accom- 
plished and experienced armorer, familiar with the workshops 
of the Old World. The production of fire-arms at home will of 
necessity remain for a considerable period inadequate to the 
home demand, and I await with much interest the arrival from 
abroad of our e.xpected importation; and I have no doubt that 
Congress, at its approaching special session, will relieve this 
Commonwealth from the payment of the duties chargeable thereon. 

In addition to its other mihtary defences the Nautical School 
ship has been fitted up to aid in guarding the coast of the Com- 
monwealth. She has been armed with four six-pound cannon 
and fifty-two muskets. The collector of the district of Boston 
and Charlestown has commissioned and placed on board the 
ship an "aid-to-the-revenue," with instructions to overhaul all 
suspicious vessels, warning him to use that authority with caution 
and moderation. Each afternoon, at the expiration of business 
hours, the collector telegraphs to the station at Hull the names 
of all vessels having permission to pass out of the harbor of Boston, 

IS9 



and, the list being immediately forwarded to the ship, the "aid" 
is authorized to order all vessels not so reported, and attempting 
to leave the harbor between sunset and sunrise, to wait till the 
next day, and until he is satisfied of their right to pass. 

The commander of the ship is instructed to assist the aid-to- 
the-revenue, to see that thorough disciphne is at all times main- 
tained, that the rules of the ship are strictly obeyed, that all due 
economy be practised, that the exercises of the school are daily 
continued, and to see that the boys receive kind treatment, and 
their habits, morals, and education, are carefully and constantly 
regarded. On the seventh of this month the ship left the harbor 
of Boston, and is now cruising in the bay in the performance of 
the duties assigned her. 

A sense of insecurity along our coast under the late piratical 
proclamation of Jetferson Davis, as well as our constant wants 
for transportation ser\ice, have induced a purchase for the Com- 
monwealth, as a part owner with the underwriters of Boston, 
of the steamer "Cambridge," of about 860 tons' burden, and 
of the steamer "Pembroke," of 240 tons, both of which, equipped 
with competent naval armament, and read\- to tight their way 
over the seas, are engaged in service. The "Cambridge" has 
carried a full cargo of arms, men, and supplies in ample quanti- 
ties, not only to Fortress Monroe, but up the Potomac itself. 
And, in spite of the danger supposed to menace her from its 
banks, she has safely carried tents, stores, provisions, and cloth- 
ing to our troops at \\"ashington. 

Besides making the requisite appropriations to meet these 
and other expenses, and adopting measures to establish the power 
of the Executive to meet the emergencies of the occasion on a dis- 
tinctly legal foundation, my other principal purpose in conven- 
ing the General Court was to ask its attention to the subject of 
a Slate Encampment jor Military Instruction. 

Wise statesmanship requires an adequate anticipation of all 
future wants of the controversy, whether as to the number or 
quality of the military force, its discipline, instruction, arms, 
or equipment. At this moment there e.xist one hundred and 
twenty-nine companies newly enlisted into the active militia, 
all of whom were induced to enroll themselves by the possibility 
of active duty in the field. Many of these are anxious to receive 
orders for service; and, withdrawing themselves from other 
avocations, they are now endeavoring to perfect themseh'es in 
the details of a soldier's routine of duty. It seemed equall}- an 
160 



injustice toward those who are disposed to arms, and to all other 
citizens on whom future exigencies might cast the inconvenient 
necessity of taking the field, to discourage these efforts and strug- 
gles of patriotic ambition. It is important to secure a reason- 
able number of soldiers, to have them ascertained, within reach, 
and in a proper condition for service; and it is scarcely less im- 
portant that other citizens should be left as free as may be from 
the distractions of a divided duty, so as to pursue with heart and 
hope the business enterprises of private hfe. The best public 
economy is found in the forethought of considered plans, dis- 
posing the means, pursuits, and people of the whole community, 
so as to meet all exigencies without confusion, and with the least 
possible derangement of productive industry; and I have, there- 
fore, to these ends, earnestly considered the suggestions of vari- 
ous eminent citizens, the written requests or memorials, numer- 
ously signed, which have reached me, and the advice of the high- 
est officers in our own militia, all uniting in the recommendation 
of a State Encampment. 

I recommend the subject to the wise and careful judgment of 
the legislature, venturing to suggest that, in order to secure 
success proportioned to its importance, any such encampment 
should be confined to those enlisting themselves for an e.xtended 
term of actual service, and should not include the ordinar}- mi- 
litia, who are only liable to three months' duty in a year; that 
it should be an encampment for thorough miUtary instruction 
in drill, discipline, and camp duty; that all who enter it should, 
while there, come under the rules and laws of active military ser- 
\'ice; that for the principal commander or instructor there should 
be obtained, if possible, an officer of the army, of rank, experi- 
ence, culture, and high character, who, with a proper stafi', should 
be specially appointed for this service, subject to control and 
removal, as circumstances may require, by the Commander-in- 
Chief. The number of soldiers or regiments to be at any one 
time placed in camp should be fixed by the legislature, and also 
the rate of compensation and the terms of enlistment. The en- 
campment may be at one place, or several encampments may 
be estabhshed under a single military commander, or otherwise, 
at convenience, and the power to put an end to the encamp- 
ment at any time, when desirable, should be reserved to the E.xec- 
utive; nor should any persons be retained in camp longer than 
the public service may clearly seem to demand. I offer this 
subject to your consideration, gentlemen, with a consciousness 

i6i 



of the hea\y care and difficult responsibilities which the adoption 
of any scheme of the sort indicated will impose upon the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and with great personal diffidence, but with 
a hearty willingness to attempt any task which the cause of the 
country and the good of the people may impose, and with entire 
confidence in the support to be found in the aid of those who 
will surround me, and in the reasonable certainty of the success 
of anv good work, honestly undertaken. 

Many mihtary organizations are now receinng aid, more or 
less ample, from cities and towTis. The companies thus assisted 
are under many disadvantages, and are trying in a desultory way 
to fit themselves for duty. But, pursuing their elTorts without 
uniformity of system or method, the number of soldiers, the 
expense they incur, and the proficiency they make are all un- 
known, while the benefit of their exertions is but partially real- 
ized, and the burdens are unequally borne. I venture to sug- 
gest that the practice begun in some towns of offering bounties 
on enlistment is attended with many inconveniences, not the least 
of which is the e\-il of different rates of compensation for soldiers 
of equal rank and merit in the same regiment; and, while no 
necessity e.xists for this course, it is liable to the objection of 
weakening the capacity of the people to alTord special aid and 
relief to the famiUes of soldiers which ma}- want while husbands 
and fathers are in the field. 

An\- relief needed by our troops, whether by reason of delays 
of pavment by the general government or otherwise, should be 
provided for under authority of the State and according to a 
uniform system. 

At present the troops willing to march under the orders of 
the President exceed many times in number the utmost limit 
which can now be received at Washington or its neighborhood, 
although, unless .some unforeseen and sudden end shall be put 
to the conflict, even more will ultimately be needed. Vet 
I cannot too strongly urge the unspeakable importance of 
husbanding the time and industry of all the people of the 
Commonwealth. I e.xhort them, therefore, to cultivate their 
resources, to devote themselves with increased assiduity to 
all the useful pursuits and arts of peaceful skill and labor, 
and especially to devote the utmost elYort to increase the agri- 
cultural products of the year. Let every man not set apart 
for present military duty devote himself, as not less a patriot 
than his more martial neighbors, to the patient and quiet 
162 



pursuits which increase the wealth and security of all, remem- 
bering that a noble purpose 

"Makes drudgerj' divine; 
Who sweeps a room as for God's law 
Makes that and th' action tine." 

I trust that the present experience will inaugurate a return 
to the only system capable of guarding a State against surprise, 
and preserving it from ultimate disaster, — I mean the arming and 
training of the whole militia. Devoted in heart to the interests 
of peace, painfully aUve to the calamities and sorrows of war, I 
cannot fail to see how plainly the rights and liberties of a peo- 
ple repose upon their own capacity to maintain them. 

I recommend the authorization of a permanent loan for the 
payment of the e.xpenses of this new emergency, to be effected 
by instalments as the Executive Department may find it expedi- 
ent. I suggest, also, that the scrip may be partly issuable in 
pieces of fifty or one hundred dollars each, so that small capi- 
tahsts may share in the benefits of the opportunity for safe in- 
vestment which the occasion will afford. The offers from the 
banking institutions of the Commonwealth, of loans to the Treas- 
ury, communicated to the Executive since the 15th of April, 
reach the aggregate amount of six millions four hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and whatever mone\'s have been needed by the 
Treasurer have been promptly advanced, pursuant to these 
offers. Their confidence in the good faith of the State, in view 
of the fact that our contracts have been made in the absence of 
previous legislation, is not less apparent than their reliance upon 
its pecuniary condition; and, in truth, a recurrence to the last 
annual report of the State Auditor renders it clear that the in- 
debtedness of the Commonwealth (exclusive of liabilities assumed 
to promote public works, and assured b}- ample mortgages) is 
so trifling, while its wealth and resources are so vast, that the 
scrip of Massachusetts must be regarded as second to no security 
in the world. The tendency to hoard, in times of commotion, 
is a circumstance aggravating the natural perturbations of so- 
ciety; and it offers a strong motive of public policy for extending 
to all classes the opportunity of investments. 

I desire to cultivate a spirit of confidence in the Federal gov- 
ernment, its capacity, its resources, and its administration. The 
States and the people owe it to themselves and to justice that 

163 



thev shall cautiously abstain from needless, careless, or in any 
wav uneconomical disbursements, into which inconsiderate 
officials mav be tempted by the expectation of ultimate repay- 
ment from the Treasury of the United States. We ought to hus- 
band every resource, to serve every interest of our parent gov- 
ernment, to watch over and protect its pecuniary credit, and to 
assist its loans, in a spirit of patriotic sympathy free from any 
sordid taint of personal selfishness; and I respectfully ask you 
to consider whether power may not properly be \ested in some 
department of the Commonwealth to intervene with the aid of 
our own credit as a State, in any possible future contingency of 
pecuniary weakness at Washington. 

In this grave national experience it becomes us not only to 
acquit ourselves as men, by courage and enterprise, but also to 
remember that every virtue, civil as well as military, calls on us 
with more commanding voice. Patient endurance, unflinching 
perseverance in every duty, whether of action or passion, at such 
a moment becomes grand and heroic. Nor can I urge too strongly 
the duty of faithful and fiHal union of heart with those to whom 
are committed the responsibilities of the central power. Whether 
thev who have to guide the current of national action seem fast 
or slow, narrow or broad, I trust that Alassachusetts men will, 
with equal devotedness, enact their part in this warfare, as good 
soldiers of a great cause. 

It is impossible that such an uprising of the people as we have 
wtnessed — so volcanic in its energy — should not manifest itself 
here and there in jets of unreasonable passion, and even of vio- 
lence, against individuals who are suspected of treasonable sym- 
pathies. But I am glad to believe that respect for every personal 
right is so general and so profound throughout Massachusetts 
that few such demonstrations have occurred in our community. 
Let us never — under any conceivable circumstances of provoca- 
tion or indignation — forget that the right of free discussion of all 
public questions is guaranteed to every individual on Massachu- 
setts soil, by the settled conviction of her people, by the habits 
of her successive generations, and by express provisions of her 
constitution. And let us therefore never seek to repress the criti- 
cisms of a minority, however small, upon the character and con- 
duct of any administration, whether State or National. 

For mvself I entertain a most cordial trust in the wisdom and 
patriotism of the President of the United States and his Cabinet, 
and of the venerable head of the American army, w-hose long and 
164 



13 

eminent career has given him a place second to no living captain 
of our time. True to his allegiance to his country and to him- 
self, may he long be spared to serve his countrymen, and to en- 
joy their gratitude; and, though white the marble and tall the 
aspiring shaft which posterity will rear to record his fame, his 
proudest monument will be their affectionate memory of a life 
grand in the service of peace not less than of war, preser\'ing in 
their hearts forever the name of \^'infield Scott. 

Surrounded by universal sympathy and aid, it is beyond my 
power to bear separate testimony to the value and merits of the 
various gifts and services offered and performed in behalf of the 
State and in amehoration of the hardships of those who bear the 
immediate brunt of war. From every department of social, 
business, and religious life, from every age, sex, and condition 
of our community, by gifts, by toil, by skill and handiwork, 
out of the basket and the store and out of the full hearts of the 
community, they have poured through countless channels of 
benevolence and patriotism. 

But how shall I record the grand and sublime uprising of the 
people, devoting themselves, their lives, their all! No creative 
art has ever woven into song a story more tender in its pathos 
or more stirring to the martial blood than the scenes just enacted, 
passing before our eyes in the \'illages and towns of our own 
dear old Commonwealth. Henceforth be silent, ye shallow 
cavillers at New England thrift, economy, and peaceful toil! 
Henceforth let no one dare accuse our northern sky, our icy win- 
ters, or our granite hills! 

"Oh, what a glorious morning!" was the exulting cry of Sam- 
uel Adams, as he, excluded from royal grace, heard the sharp 
musketry which on the dawn of the igth of April, 1775, announced 
the beginning of the war of independence. The yeomanry who 
in 1775, on Lexington Common and on the banks of Concord 
River, first made that day immortal in our annals, have found 
their lineal representatives in the historic regiment which on 
the igth of April, 186 1, in the streets of Baltimore, baptized our 
flag anew in heroic blood, — when Massachusetts marched once 
more "in the sacred cause of liberty and the rights 0} mankind." 

Senators and Representatives: 

Grave responsibilities have fallen, in the Providence of God, 
upon the government and the people; and they are welcome. 
They could not have been safelv postponed. They have not 

165 



14 

arrived too soon. They will sift and tn' this people, all who lead 
and all who follow. But this trial, giving us a heroic present to 
revive our past, wll breathe the inspiration of a new hfe into our 
national character and reassure the destiny of the RepubUc. 



That such a man should be made governor of Massachusetts was, of 
course, an inevitable incident in the logic of events. He could not have 
prevented it had he tried. But the exact time at which he was elected had 
in it something providential. Never did the Ship of State more need such 
firmness, wisdom, forecast, and energj' at the helm. 

"Each petty hand 
Can steer a ship becalmed; hut he that will 
Govern and carry her to her ends, must know 
His tides, his currents; how to shift his sails; 
What she will bear in foul, what in fair weathers; 
What her springs are, her leaks, and how to stop ihem; 
What strands, what shelves, what rocks do threaten her; 
The forces and the natures of all winds. 
Gusts, storms, and tempests; when her keel ploughs heU, 
And deck knocks heaven; then to manage her 
Becomes the name and office of a pilot." 

.\nd such a pilot Governor .\ndrew proved himself to be. Knomng, as 
he did, the philosophy of the slave system, and knowing, also, the purposes 
of its champions, the Slaveholders' Rebellion could not take him by sur- 
prise. .As early as the middle of December, iS6o, he had visited Washing- 
ton, conversed familiarly with the leading public men of the South, and 
clearly perceived that all the movements relating to compromise were but 
scenes in a clumsily acted political farce. He looked straight through all 
the plausibiUties to the realities of the situation, and returned to Boston as 
much convinced that the South meant war as he was on the day when the 
first gun fired on Sumter woke everybody to the fact. From his insight 
sprang his foresight. It was mainly through his exertions that the active 
militia of Massachusetts were placed on a war footing, ready to march at 
the first word of command. You all remember with what sagacity this was 
done, and you all remember, too, with what sneers and gibes his forecast 
was then rewarded. His general order to the militia was promulgated in 
January, 1861, and the memorable 12th of .April, which opened the costliest 
and bloodiest of civil wars, found him ;dl prepared. He received his tele- 
gram from Washington, for troops, on Monday, .April 15. He was able to 
say that by nine o'clock on the next Sunday morning, "the whole number 
of regiments demanded from Massachusetts were already either in Wash- 
ington or in Fortress Monroe or on their way to the defence of the capital. 
It was at midnight on the iqth of .April, after the exhausting labors of the 
day, that he wrote, at his own house, the despatch to the mayor of Balti- 
more, which has so endeared him to the popular heart. "I pray you," he 
wrote, "to cause the bodies of our Massachusetts soldiers, dead in Balti- 
more, to be immediately laid out, preserved with ice, and tenderly sent for- 
ward by e.iipress to me." His activity during the first month of the war 
was not more marked than his mental self-possession. The rush and whirl 
of events did not hurry him from his balance. Overwhelmed with all sorts 
of propositions, recommendations, proposals, pertinent and impertinent, 
166 



IS 

such as might be expected in an emergency when the confusion of men's 
minds was as great as the warmth of their sentiments, the governor stood 
firm and calm, listening, analyzing, deciding, quick to detect what was 
judicious, proof against all the generosities of unreason. No one was more 
impassioned than he: no one was more serene and self-centred. He was 
all ahve, soul and body, heart and brain, and, being all alive, his intellect 
showed its clearness and grasp, as well as his sensibility its fire and impulse. 
"There is nothing," we are told, "more terrible than activity without in- 
sight"; and the governor's activity was identical with hjs insight. He de- 
cided swiftly, and he decided surely. The rarest quaUty of comprehensive 
statesmanship, the readiness to assume responsibility, seemed native to his 
intrepid intelligence. "Immediately," he writes to President Lincoln on 
the 3d of May, "on receiving your Proclamation, we took up the war, 
and have carried on our part of it, in the spirit in which we believe the ad- 
ministration and the American people intend to act; namely, as if there 
was not an inch of red tape in the world." So thoroughly kindled was his 
whole nature that, when, a few days later, he addressed the legislature in 
its e.xtra session, his rapid recital of the powers he had assumed, and the 
work he had done, combined the e.NpUcitness of a business document with 
something of the lyric rush of an ode of triumph. 

This unwearied fire of soul burned steadily within him during the whole 
five years of heroic effort and heroic toil, which made his administration 
such an epoch in the history of the State. He knew that the disease of 
which he eventually died might strike him at any moment. Three months 
before he entered on his glorious career as governor he was warned by his 
physician that any over -exertion of brain would endanger his health, and 
probably his life. ' He was notoriously as regardless of the warning as a 
brave soldier, going to battle, would be regardless of the admonition that 
he might be hit by a bullet. The care that a man takes of his health should, 
of course, be subordinate to his sense of duty. Considerations of hygiene 
did not enter into the soul of William of Orange, doing that which he knew 
would reduce him to an "asthmatic skeleton"; into the soul of Milton, 
doing that which he knew would deprive him of his sight; into the soul of 
Latimer, doing that which he knew would lead him to the stake. On the 
same principle Governor Andrew felt that he was at his post, not to take 
care of himself, but to look after the rights and interests of others; and, in- 
deed, any man who evades the duty of the hour in order to save himself 
for some future great occasion is a man to whom no great occasion will ever 
come. 

Taking thus his life in his hand, he, in the most emphatic sense of the 
phrase, "enlisted for the war." To perform every duty as it rose or as it 
was anticipated was both his labor and his dehght. " The only question," 
he said, "which I can entertain is what to do; and, when that question is 
answered, the other is, what next to do." The record of that heroic activity 
is too long to be recited here. There is no time even to allude to more than 
a few of its shining results. The mere statement of the fact that Massa- 
chu.setts, during the war, contributed nearly a hundred and sixty thousand 
men to the army and navy, and expended nearly twenty-eight millions of 
dollars from her own treasury, shows how laborious and how sagacious 
must have been the exertions of her executive head. But the details of all 
this work, the wear and tear of heart and brain they involved, the minute 
supervision they required, the audacity and the tact demanded for their 

167 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



; ^ l6 ii.lMI"i|||i:ll,illilliilllilllilliill g| 

=/f 013 703 120 6 ^ 

r skilful management, the fret, anxiety, peri.lexitv, disappointment, which 
were their too common accompaniments,— who shall estimate them ? The 
governor drudged in the service of a clear-seeing, far-seeing statesmanship- 
but the drudgery was still exhausting to bodv and mind. And then the 
prejudices he had to overcome ! He saw from the first that the war must 
destroy slaverj-, and he urged the issuing of the Presidential Pioclamation 
of Emancipation before it came. What cries from prudent patriots that he 
was penlUng the cause by his wish to give it a new moral stimulant' He 
saw from the first that the negroes should have a part in the war which was 
sure to emancipate them, and he was the tirst Northern governor to organize 
black regiments. What gibes from fathers of families whose sons his policv 
saved from the draft! In the fourteen or fifteen thousand mililar\- appoint- 
ments he made, how often must he have wounded the self-esteem of dis- 
appointed applicants, and how bitter was often their resentment! \n<\ in 
addition to his labors in the State itself it is to be remembered that his duties 
called him frequently to Washington to press the settlement of State claims 
on the national government, to enforce his views of pubUc policv on the 
national- administration, and especially to insist that no just complaints of 
his Massachusetts regiments should be left unreUeved.— i^ro/H Edmti P 
Whipple's Eulogy on Andreiv. 

u-;nJh^° '\'I''°° ■'^^^y'- 'he great war governor of Masjaclmsett; (.861-65), was bora at 
Windham. Me a small town near Sebago Lake. .Mav 31, 1818, l«o vears Wore thTor 
I^,?r"S„°'a-^'/"'' ^\^ ^P""'"^ ,S.a.e. His first .American ancestor^ hk father^ sfde 
in ,668 a; ?^^"'v"v;^°' """"l^ ''"" England, settled in Rowlev, Mass.. and died \here 
nor rah ofiisnlH .tr^' ""T""' ""^ ^"°"' Higginson. the firJt minister of Salem A 
^ \^Ar-TJ A^ '^'ergynian hung over the mantel in the Council Chamber during the whole 
of .Andrew sadmmistration as governor. .Andrew's grandfather, whole name he tare w-s 
a successful Sa en, merchant, who removed to Windham after the birth of Ws son Tonithan 
vL'crG°°p:rce''f tealh'r'-n' F- "l'° "^T'. ' P^^tf---'"^''^"' -> \«Ddhan,. maifcd 
t'^a\"h^r;''andThn .A.Tnd" v^^'a7fheT„■M"fson^ 

Salem, and thin a student in^BowdoS^ot&'^^her^L^^g^adu ?e°d\-n°j83°/' Sf c'^^ 
Boston to study law in the olhce of Henry H. Fuller, an uncle of MargaJet Fuller an™ was 

gS^^M^^s;p;^XKle^^^^ 

Hir £i= '' v^^'^" -^ «-- °-^ »~ - 

an^I^olheMn 'the^S^I.e^HousJinliston!''"' °' '™ ">■ "'^ ^'"^'^ '" "«= "'"«'>=- «'"^'">-' 
rahle^vorlf';n'.,v'"'T' ""'ifd long for an adequate biography, the thorough and admi- 
rahle work m two volumes by Professor Henry G. Pearson being pubUshed iS looa Thei 

ary addresses are included in the appends to Mr. Chandler's biography. 
PUBLISHED BY 

THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 

Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass 
16S 



